Taro and Kokoro: A new hope

The days following Kokoro’s rejection from participating in the music festival became some of the quietest days of Taro’s life. No new songs were released by Music and Metal. It was just him alone in his workshop, with an empty sound booth behind him where Kokoro use to be.

She had also stopped coming to school. Whenever Taro met Tomomi in class, the girl would always have this sad expression on her face that told him all he had to know. Kokoro was still choosing to be alone. She wasn’t ready to come back yet, and Tomomi wasn’t sure whether her friend was ever going to come back.

Further development on the neural link and speaking aid had also stalled. Since Kokoro wasn’t around anymore, Taro’s entire drive to basically do anything just wasn’t there. he tried contacting her. Despite Tomomi’s stern request that he didn’t talk to her yet, Taro ignored her request and sent a few messages to Kokoro’s phone, all of which went unanswered.

She had told him she loved him. Kokoro had confessed her feelings for him. He wanted to tell her. He needed to tell her he felt the same way.

He wasn’t sure at first. To Taro, the idea of love was uncharted territory. he had never fallen in love with a girl before. Heck, before Kokoro, he hadn’t even met a girl he liked. But since the first day he saw her. Her big blue eyes, her thick blond hair. There wasn’t a single day that past since then, that he hadn’t thought of her.

Two weeks later, and the end of the school year was fast approaching. Taro suddenly realized he hadn’t even decided on a class project with Kokoro. On the social media front, the entirety of Japan and other parts of the world were asking on the whereabouts of Music and Metal. She hadn’t released a new song in over three weeks, and people were starting to get worried.

Then, one night, everything changed.

***

Taro was on his hover-bike driving back home after visiting his sister, when out of the blue, he received an incoming caller notification in his helmet.

It was from Kokoro.

He was momentarily confused. Kokoro never called. She only texted. But curiosity, mixed with the desperation to hear from Kokoro after so long, took over.

“Answer.” he said into his helmet, and waited for the person on the other end to respond.

“Taro?” came a familiar voice from the other end.

Taro’s eyes widened in astonishment. It was her. It was Kokoro. But how was she talking?

“Kokoro, are you okay? Where are you? I need to talk to you.”

***

“Just come to your house.” Kokoro responded. “I’m here.”

Kokoro smiled as she ended the call. She was going to see him again, after so long. His voice. Oh, how she missed hearing his voice. She looked up at the rest of the people standing around in the living room of Taro’s house. They were mostly men. Bodyguards. Dressed in fancy suits like her father use to wear back when he was alive.

Her gaze drifted over to the couch where two other people were seated. On one side, was her closest and only friend, Tomomi. The same girl that had repeatedly checked up on her at the orphanage while she had chosen to isolate from the rest of the world, and the same girl that had pushed her in every good direction in her life.

Kokoro was glad to have a friend like her.

On the other side of the couch however, busy chatting away with Tomomi as if they were peers and longtime friends, was a person Kokoro would have never imagined meeting even once in her life time.

It was a woman. A beautiful woman. She was dressed like a rock star. A black jacket, black pants, black boots, and a black neckless. Her eyes were violet, and her hair was long, straight, and red.

It was star Airi.

International music icon star Airi.

In the flesh.

Kokoro couldn’t believe her eyes.

***

She was out in the yard playing with a few of the children, when several black vehicles suddenly pulled up to the orphanage. At first, Kokoro was gripped with fear and frozen to the spot. She thought the people inside were government agents who had come to retrieve her, after they must have taken Taro and Tomomi. But when international music icon star Airi stepped out from one of the leading vehicles, followed by Tomomi who immediately began waving back at her, Kokoro suddenly felt a sense of safety.

“So, what he say?” star Airi asked. “Your boyfriend on his way or what?”

Kokoro was suddenly flustered, and she couldn’t stop her cheeks from turning red. Even star Airi had called Taro her boyfriend, most likely as a result of having Tomomi being the one to explain their situation to the superstar.

Star Airi now knew of everything. Of Taro’s inventions, of Kokoro’s dream. She had even successfully figure out the identity of Music and Metal, that it was Kokoro herself who was the voice in the machine.

Kokoro nodded in response, feeling the familiar weight of the neural link resting on her head again. Tomomi had given it back to her when they arrived at Taro’s house, as well as the speaking aid which was now plastered on the left side of her chest.

“He’s on his way.” Kokoro replied.

***

When Taro pulled up to his house, he jumped off his hover-bike with the motor of the machine still running. He slammed into his front door and threw it open. Kokoro was in the middle of the living room seated in her wheelchair. She was glancing over her shoulder and looking at him. but she was not the only one.

They were people in his house. Strangers. Men dressed in suits, and on the couch, was Tomomi and…

He was seeing things.

It couldn’t be.

There was no way.

Star Airi?